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Tuesday, February 18, 2003
NEWSPAPER OF BETHEL COLLEG
Volume 78 Number 9
State budget cut to have no immediate effect
By Krista Clark
News Editor
With the need to balance the state's
Fiscal Year 2003 budget by Jun. 30 and a
refusal to increase taxes, Governor
Pawlenty and the Senate have chosen to
cut spending for state higher education.
The plan was implemented on Jan. 10
after an announcement that no more state
grants would be awarded for this school
year or summer school.
Despite the fact that students all over
the state are being affected by the budget
cuts. Dan Nelson, senior director of college financial aid, said that the
"dayschool students [at Bethel] are not
being negatively affected this year." This
is because the amount of financial aid for
each student is calculated during the
spring that precedes the school year.
Therefore, every Bethel student who
received a state grant for the 2002-2003
school year was awarded their money
last spring, which will remain through
the end of this school year.
Bethel students who are affected by
the budget cuts are those who applied for
state grants, but were not awarded them
prior to Jan 10. This includes late applicants such as transfer students or CGCS
students who did not apply early due to
the fact that they attend school year-
round.
"The biggest impact of the cuts," said
Nelson, "is actually at the public
schools." That is because students at
public universities, on average, tend to
apply for grants at a much later time than
students at private colleges; they're also
more likely to attend summer school.
It cannot be ignored, however, that private colleges are in the midst of the
struggle between the state's budget cuts
and institutions of higher learning.
Bethel alone had nearly 800 students
receive a total of $2.7 million in
Minnesota State Grants during the 2001-
2002 school year and numbers are
increasing every year.
According to Nelson, the demand for
state grants grew rapidly due to three factors: 1) an increase in the number of students attending college; 2) students who
demonstrate more financial need based
upon the sagging economy; 3) tuition
percentage increases (which are greatest
at public institutions).
The increase in students applying for
state grants has made it even more difficult for the Senate to resolve the budget
deficit. One way it attempted to close the
gap was to take money away from the
Work Study Program. This particular
budget cut was made-early. so Bethel did
not receive any funds for the program
this year as opposed to the $470,000 it
received last year. About 600 students
are employed through Bethel's Work
Study Program, but there was no need to
lay off any student workers because
Bethel is covering for the loss of funds.
Although such a tactic will not perpetu
ally endure, there are hopes that the legislature will be able to provide funds
again next year. In the meantime, Bethel
continues to make up the deficit at its
own cost in order to keep student
employees employed.
Overall, the budget cuts have barely
had an impact on Bethel students this
school year. Next year may be no different, but students must speak up for themselves to ensure the safety of State
Grants. Faculty and administration
encourage students to attend the
Minnesota Private College Day at the
Capitol on Feb. 25 from 8:30 a.m.-l:00
p.m. According to Mike Wilhemi of the
Minnesota Private College Council,
"State Grant recipients... [will] have the
opportunity to tell senators and representatives how critical this funding is to
financing their education." Anyone who
is interested should contact Amanda
Wanke (x6266) or go to www.mnprivate-
colleges.com to sign up.
Seminary's creationist seminar stirs controversy at college
By Timothy Goddard
Views Editor
Calling it "the most important issue today," Dr. Ron
Carlson asked the audience of Bethel College students
and professors, Bethel Seminary students and alumni,
and community members packed into the Eastlund
Room to consider "whether you are an accident evolved
out of pond scum, or whether you were created by
God." Carlson, president of Christian Ministries
International and a leading authority on Christian
apologetics according to the Seminary's Leadership
Enrichment department, spent the next six hours giving
his answer to that question.
Carlson's lecture entitled "The Evolution/Creation
Controversy:Understanding the Science and Theology
of Creation" was part of the Seminary's Leadership
Enrichment Series, which has previously included lectures entitled "The Pastor and Mentoring" and
"Leadership for the Heart." According to Nikki Daniels,
the Seminary's director of Leadership Enrichment, the
purpose of the series was to provide the Bethel
Community, especially Seminary alumni, with lecturers
who will be helpful in their ministry.
Daniels seemed aware of the controversy surrounding this lecture and advised listeners to "come with open hearts and
open minds," and to "decide what
it is God wants you-to know and
how to know it."
Carlson's lecture was focused
on explaining that scientific evidence does not support evolution.
He supported a strictly literal
interpretation of the creation story
in Genesis and dismissed both
atheistic and theistic evolution as
being unscientific. "The only contradiction," he insisted, "is
between a man-made theory that
has no scientific evidence, and the
Bible."
During the first half of the lecture, Carslon focused on refuting
evolution-based probability, the
complexity of cellular systems,
entropy and a lack of fossil evidence. He later discussed the geologic column as well as dinosaurs Seminary creationist Dr. Ron Carlson
and the Flood, insisting that a literal interpretation of
the Flood account correlates with scientific evidence
and dinosaur fossils. Such an
interpretation implies that the
geologic column was a falsehood.
Though most in the audience
seemed to agree with Carlson's
conclusions, some audience
members, including Bethel biology professors Tim Shaw and
Ian Johnston, were less enthusiastic.
"The concern is that what he's
pointing to is that the entire geological, biological, paleontologi-
cal, cosmological stories are
all... some kind of cruel hoax,"
said Johnston. "I just can't
believe that." He also saw danger
in Carlson's assertion that
Continued on page 4
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Reproduction or distribution of these files is permitted for educational and research purposes with proper attribution to the Bethel Digital Library. No commercial reproduction or distribution of these files is permitted under copyright law without the written permission of Bethel University Digital Library. For questions or further information on this collection, contact digital-library@bethel.edu.